PHILADELPHIA --- Maalik Wayns has made two life-altering decisions involving the Villanova basketball program. The first: To join. The second: To leave. It wasn’t until this week that he knew he would be vindicated for both.

Wayns is an NBA player, or at least will be Thursday when the 76ers open their preseason in Orlando. That, he suspects, is because of his training at Villanova. Yet that, he will be proving despite howling warnings from the pessimists, is because he left the Wildcats early.

Like any real point guard, Wayns has proven that timing means everything.

“I kind of knew I would have a good chance to play in the NBA,” Wayns was saying Wednesday, after practice at the PCOM Center. “I didn’t doubt that. I have a good agent and I thought I had a pretty good career at Villanova --- not great, but pretty good. So I knew I would have a chance.”

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Wayns was a high school All-American and chose Villanova from a limitless pot of college opportunities. But he lasted just two years on Lancaster Pike, including last season, when the Wildcats sputtered to a 13-19 record, 4-11 in the Big East … and further from where they’d been when the Roman Catholic High product enlisted.

“That’s why I say I didn’t have a ‘great’ career,” Wayns said. “Because I went there with big expectations. I went there trying to bring a national championship to Villanova. And I didn’t get that done.”

The goal was not outrageous, given that as recently as 2009 the Wildcats were a Final Four team, and that Jay Wright had concocted consistent success with guard-dominated lineups. But the program flattened, then dipped, and then it lost Wayns, who has been what Doug Collins said Wednesday a “very, very special surprise” in training camp.

Though undrafted, Wayns spent some time with the Magic, then with Golden State in the Las Vegas summer league before surfacing with the Sixers and immediately impressing their coaches with his speed. Though the 6-foot-1 guard technically still must make the Opening Night roster, his training camp presence was a major reason why the Sixers officially waived guard Xavier Silas Wednesday, as their backcourt vision had grown more clear.

“We added Maalik and Royal Ivey,” Collins said. “So the numbers were against him.”

The numbers, then, are with Wayns, at least when it comes to the roster. As for the playing rotation, he remains in a little deep, with Jrue Holiday, Evan Turner, Ivey and Jason Richardson higher in the mix, and with Collins unafraid to bump a forward into one of those spots on occasion.

“I don’t know, but hopefully I will play,” Wayns said. “It’s whatever the coach wants from me. That’s what I do and I do it every day. Right now, that’s to play hard and push the other guys.”

In the 10 minutes of a late-practice scrimmage visible to the press Wednesday, Wayns was lively and aggressive, made a rookie mistake or two, was among the fastest players on the PCOM floor and hardly was out of place.

Whatever happened at Villanova --- and there were many nights when Wayns was spectacular --- clearly had worked.

“I am never satisfied,” Wayns said. “I am a worker. I like being the best, but last year, we didn’t win a lot and I think that put a toll on me. Now that I am back, I am happy and everything is good.”

That includes his relationship with Wright’s program.

“I have no regrets,” he said. “I have a lifetime relationship with Villanova. There were a lot of great things for me there. I played there and have no regrets. Next summer, I definitely will start back there and get my degree.”

He’ll earn his degree, but he already has earned a spot in Villanova basketball lore.

“Coach was not upset that I left,” Wayns said. “In fact, he was kind of honored. He knew I was ready for this. He was behind me 100 percent, because he knew I could play in the NBA.”

Thursday, in Orlando, Wayns will be in an NBA uniform and playing. No regrets, indeed.